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Invokana and Farxiga: Members of a New Class of Dangerous Drugs for Type 2

The FDA recently gave its approval to two drug in a new class of diabetes drugs. More are awaiting approval. The first of these was Johnson & Johnson's canagliflozin, which is marketed in the U.S. as Invokana.

This class of drugs, the sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, lowers blood sugar by blocking reabsorption of glucose by the kidney and increasing its excretion in urine. The manufacturer also claims that it causes weight loss--always a potent selling point for a diabetes drug.

As is the case with all new diabetes drugs, now that the drug is approved, drug company flacks will start saturation bombing family physicians with materials that make it sound like they should put every patient with Type 2 on this wonderful, new drug, which is priced at $8.77 a pill or $263.10 for a monthly supply.

They shouldn't.

The committee of "experts" who reviewed this drug were ambivalent about it because the company's own, [most likely, statistically manipulated], clinical study of patients at especially high risk of cardiovascular disease showed that within the first 30 days, 13 patients taking canagliflozin suffered a major cardiovascular event [mainly strokes and some heart attacks] compared with just one patient taking a placebo. After that, the imbalance was reversed, though the drug then caused a slight increase in LDL cholesterol.

However, as the New York Times report notes, " F.D.A. spokeswoman said Friday that the significance of those findings was unclear, and the label of the drug includes no warnings about heart attacks or strokes."

That means that busy family physicians who are conscientious enough to review the FDA Prescribing Information will have no idea that they may exposing some of their previously stable patients with Type 2 Diabetes to life-altering strokes and heart attacks that will either kill them or ruin their quality of life.

One third of the experts in the FDA committee who reviewed the research J&J provided about Invokana advised against approving this drug (5 out of 15). They also expressed concern that this drug might be more dangerous for people with kidney disease--which of course, describes a lot of people with Type 2 Diabetes who have followed conventional medical advice.

Johnson & Johnson's current management has shown itself criminally unconcerned with the fate of those who buy its most toxic products, as was demonstrated by the fact that the company continued to market their metal-on-metal replacement joints long after people inside the company knew that a high number of them were failing within a very few years after surgical implantation, exposing users to the risks of more major surgery and the possibility of joint deterioration that could permanently limit mobility and lead to life long pain and disability. (Details HERE.) With this kind of corporate culture, it is not impossible that J&J insiders might have tweaked the studies used to approve its drug to make them look better than those that led to the rejection of dapagliflozin.

We have learned from the history of the Incretin drugs that when members of a class can't be approved for a long time due to disturbing findings in approval testing, the members of the class that are approved often turn out to have the same effects when given to more patients.

But you can be sure that now that this money-making new drug is officially on the market, J&J will do all it can to keep the public from learning about the true toll it exerts on those who take it.

And of course, as we have now learned from every new expensive diabetes drug released in the past 20 years, the rest of the side effects of this new class of drugs won't begin to become evident until millions of prescriptions have been sold and hundreds of thousands of people suffered whatever else it is that it does to the body, because no approval testing exposes people to a new drug long enough for those effects to become clear. (And many of the effects would require microscopic studies of the tissues of people taking the drugs which are never required for approval.)

Other Side Effects

Yeast Infections

Unmentioned in any of the news stories about this new drug is the fact, mentioned in Invokana's Prescribing Information, that it causes serious yeast infections in women and uncircumcised men. This makes sense since sugary urine promotes the over-growth of yeast. One in ten of those who took the drug experienced this side effect. One in twenty who took it experienced urinary tract infections.

Decreased Kidney Function

The Prescribing Information states: "INVOKANA increases serum creatinine and decreases eGFR [glomerular filtration rate.]" It also raises the risk of dangerous low blood pressure and hyperalkemia (high potassium levels) especially in people taking blood pressure medication. (Hyperalkemia can lead to heart rhythm abnormalities. Older people, particularly those over 75 are those most likely to have the most severe kidney-based reactions to the drug.

Effect on Blood Sugar

A low dose of the drug (100 mg) lowered A1c on average .79% (i.e. from 8.0% to 7.21%. The high dose (300 mg) lowered A1c, on average .94%. In contrast, the impact of plain metformin on blood sugar, according to the Glucophage prescribing information (available HERE) is to lower blood sugar 1.4% over 29 weeks. The combination of metformin and Invokana did not make any change in the drop in A1c which remained, on average, the same as it would be with Invokana alone and less than could be achieved with optimal metformin dosing.

On average, the low dose lowered fasting blood sugar from 173 mg/dl to 155 mg/dl--a level high enough to ensure the development of all the classic diabetic complications. The high dose lowered fasting blood sugar from an average of 173 mg/dl to 138 mg/dl. I

Very significantly, the Prescribing Information does NOT report the effect of this drug on post-meal blood sugars when taken alone. It only reports its effect on post-meal blood sugars when taken with metformin, where it lowers blood sugar by the same amount that metformin alone would lower it. In short, Invokana does not appear to have any significant effect on post-meal blood sugars, and none, overall that couldn't be achieved by taking the cheap generic, metformin, alone.

Even when Invokana was combined with metformin, the combined impact on post-meal blood sugars was unimpressive. The average blood sugar of the untreated people in this study two hours after eating was between 258 mg/dl and 262 mg/dl--a level guaranteed to produce heart disease and other classic diabetic complications. When Invokana was taken along with metformin, their average 2 hour post-meal blood sugar was still 205 mg/dl to 210 mg/dl, a level still high enough to cause heart disease and all the classic diabetic complications.

This makes it clear Invokana offers no significant benefit to people with Type 2 diabetes. We know from several research studies that post-meal blood sugars over 155 mg/dl promote the development of heart disease. (Details HERE)

Farxiga, a Second, Even Worse Drug in this Same Class

Farxiga, mysteriously named "Forxiga" outside of the U.S. (both are generically named dapagliflozin), is a second drug in this same SGLT-2 inibitor class, which has all the same side efects as Invokana, along with the possibility that it increases LDL-C, the so called "bad" cholesterol.

The FDA originally rejected it as too dangerous, but approved it in January of 2014. There were more cases of bladder cancer among those taking Farxiga than in the group that did not take it. AstraZeneca, the company selling it, assures you that the numbers in the study were too small to determine if this was statistically significant. Why would you want to participate in the much larger and, to AstraZeneca highly profitable" "study" conducted on paying human lab rats that will, by the time the patent expires on this drug, make it crystal clear just how dangerous it really is?

Jardiance, Yet Another Drug in this Class

Jardiance is the same empagliflozin that the FDA did not approve a year ago supposedly because of unspecified manufacturing problems. It was approved in August 2014.

Like the other drugs we just discussed Jardiance causes urinary tract infections and vaginal, and penile yeast infection. The FDA is also demanding post-marketing cardiovascular tests, so it is likely that the same disturbing signals emerged in its clinical trials as emerged with the other drugs. It too is not recommended for people with kidney disease. It is not known whether a cancer signal appeared in its clinical trials. But since these trials only involved a total of 4,500 people and did not last more than a few years, the cancer signal seen in other drugs in the same class should not be ignored.

Say "No" to Brand New Diabetes Drugs!

If your doctor tries to put you on these new drugs, say no. Wait ten years, and search the literature then to see what scientists have found out about its real effects on patients before you try it.

If you can't control your blood sugar using standard therapies the safest approach is this:

2. If that doesn't lower your blood sugar to a healthy level, ask your doctor about starting metformin ER. Make sure you end up with a clinically effective dose which for most people is at least 1500 mg a day. The ER form is kinder to the stomach.

3. If you don't respond to metformin, ask your doctor to prescribe long-acting insulin, which should lower your fasting blood sugar. Read up on how to set the dose so that it is most effective.

4. If that isn't enough, ask your doctor to prescribe fast acting insulin to cover the carbs in your meals. Read up to learn how to set the dose, as most family doctors don't have the resources to give Type 2s the proper training in using this kind of insulin. (Don't use mixtures of fast and slow insulin (70/30 mixes) as they almost always make it extremely hard to get good control of blood sugar.)

These are the safe, long-tested strategies that provides the best reward for the smallest amount of risk in people with Type 2 diabetes.